The dramatic monologue is a unique genre that blends poetry, drama and narrative, in a present and engaging poetic experience. It is “regarded as the most significant poetic innovation of the [Victorian] age” (Chapman 80).
History:
Though many of the conventions of the dramatic monologue form are observable as early as 1828 in Felicia Hemans' poetic collection Records of Women, the title "dramatic monologue" was not applied until 1857 when it was coined by a poet named George Thornbury; however, this term did not gain recognition until the end of the century, (Chapman 80). Instead, during the Victorian era these poems were called “‘dramatic lyrics’, ‘dramatic romances’, ‘lyrical monologues’ or ‘monodramas’” (Chapman 80), particularly observable in the title of Robert Browning's collection Dramatic Lyrics, which was released in 1842. The dramatic monologue is popularly believed to have “developed its recognizable features during the early Victorian period of the 1830s” (Chapman 81), throughout the writings of nineteenth century poets such as Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The emergence of the poetic conventions associated with this genre are historically regarded by scholars to emerge in Alfred Tennyson’s poem, “St Simeon Stylites”(which written in 1833, but not published until 1842), and then with Robert Browning’s poems, “Johannes Agricola in Meditation” and “Porphyria’s Lover,”(both published in 1836) (Byron 80-81).
Other Beliefs:
There is no one poem that serves as an epitome, or proves conclusively when the dramatic monologue was developed-- some scholars that argue that this genre has ancient origins, citing old English poems as well as folk ballads. Further, “a number of critics have…suggested that it might be such women poets as Letitia Landon and Felicia Hemans, writing during that transitional period of the 1820s, who 'invented' the dramatic monologue” (Byron 81). The popular belief remains that the dramatic monologue was created “simultaneously but independently by Tennyson and Browning during the 1830s” (Byron 79).
Dramatic Monologue as a Hybrid:
The dramatic monologue came into popularity during a wave of innovative poetry. This “refashioning of old hybrids [was a method] that Romantic poets had already begun, in the lyrical ballads of Wordsworth and Coleridge, or the lyrical drama of Byron and Shelley” (Chapman 81). This genre borrows many aspects from the lyric (to see more about this topic click here) and is known as a “lyrical-dramatic narrative hybrid” (Chapman 80), further sharing similarities with other precedent genres like expressing complex emotions (lyric), having a speaker that is not the poet (drama) and having a retrospective structure (narrative) (Chapman 80-81).
Form:
The dramatic monologue is known as a “dynamic, unfixed genre” (Chapman 85). Unlike other genres, the dramatic monologue has no “set structural – metrical, rhyme, stanzaic – requirements” (Chapman 82). But a few other prerequisites are needed to give a poem the title of dramatic monologue-- i.e., the dramatic monologue must: 1) Be written in the voice of an individual character (Landow 1). 2) Have an audience (or listener) as well as “some interplay between speaker and listener” (Langbaum 76). The listener can be present or not, they can even be imagined, but the speaker talks to them despite this. 3) Have elements of introspection/internalization/isolation (Chapman 81). 4) Produce a sense of immediacy (Chapman 81).
Speaker:
The dramatic monologue speaker is vital to the poem and is a complicated aspect. Though the speaker may take on other character’s voices to relay their story and propel the plot, the speaker is always in control of the words, allowing for a possible unreliable narrator/speaker, (as is found in soliloquies of the drama genre). The use of multiple voices spoken through the speaker is seen in Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s “The Blessed Damozel”as the speaker invokes the voice of the Damozel:
‘I wish that he were come to me, For he will come,’ she said. ‘Have I not pray'd in Heaven?--on earth, Lord, Lord, has he not pray'd? Are not two prayers a perfect strength? And shall I feel afraid?’ (Rossetti 67-72)
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms states that “such poems reveal not the poet’s own thoughts but the mind of the impersonated character, whose personality is revealed unwittingly.”
The dramatic monologue is also condensed into a single vivid narrative scene where “to 'create or ‘restore’ the ‘inner’ world of another person,” (Nerstad 543). The reader must “‘embody’ the speaker--put themselves into his ‘body’--in their attempts to see into and through his point of view” (Nerstad 544). This is seen most explicitly in Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover”, as the speaker recounts his murder of a woman he loved:
That moment she was mine, mine, fair, Perfectly pure and good: I found A thing to do, and all her hair In one long yellow string I wound Three times her little throat around, And strangled her. No pain felt she; I am quite sure she felt no pain. (Browning 36-42)
The reader hears the inner monologue of the speaker and becomes privy to his innermost feelings and sociopathic aspects. The reader must be “imaginatively engaged, to assess the speaker’s qualities and arguments while simultaneously empathizing with the speaker’s predicament” (82).
Browning and Tennyson:
Browning is known as the father of the dramatic monologue (though he called it the dramatic lyric) due to popular and powerful poems. His most well-known poems, namely, “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover”, delve into the twisted psyche of men who have felt love’s passion too hard. Both poems act to connect the reader with the speaker and make the reader become co-conspirators in their actions.
The dramatic monologue does not always have to inspire the horror or mystery of Browning’s poems; for instance, the dramatic monologue can be more subtle in its presentation like in that of Tennyson’s “Ulysses”. This poem is a great deal more understated than Browning’s work, but is still within the parameters to make this poem a dramatic monologue. But Robert Langbaum agrees that the “most successful dramatic monologues deal with speakers who are in some way reprehensible” (Langbaum 85).
Other Poets and the Dramatic Monologue:
The dramatic monologue is a genre that broke away from lyric poetry, merging aspects of drama and theatre as well as prose to create a captivating and interesting poetry experience. It was complicated in its origin and has a wide definition, but has been the frame on which many great poems stand.
Major Victorian Era poems of this genre include Alfred Tennyson’s “Ulysses”; Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s poems “The Blessed Damozel” and “Jenny”; Augusta Webster’s poems “A Castaway” and “Circe”; and Felicia Hemans’ poems “Properzia Rossi” and “Arabella Stuart”.
Works Cited:
Baldick, Chris. The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. 2008. Oxford University Press, 2008. Web. 27 Feb. 2015
Byron, Glennis. “Rethinking the dramatic monologue: Victorian Women Poets and social critique.” Essays and Studies 2003. Ed. Alison Chapman. New York: The English Association, 2003. 79-98. Print.
Chapman, Alison, Antony H. Harrison, and Richard Cronin, eds. A Companion to Victorian Poetry. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2002. Print.
Landow, Richard P. “Dramatic Monologue: An Introduction.” The Victorian Web. Victorianweb.org, 10 March 2003. Web. 30 Jan. 2015
Langbaum, Robert Woodrow. The Poetry of Experience; the Dramatic Monologue in Modern Literary Tradition. New York: Random House, 1957. Print.
Nerstad, Erin. "Decomposing but to recompose: Browning, biblical hermeneutics, and the dramatic monologue." Victorian Poetry 50.4 (2012): 543-561. Web. 27 Feb.2015.
History:
Though many of the conventions of the dramatic monologue form are observable as early as 1828 in Felicia Hemans' poetic collection Records of Women, the title "dramatic monologue" was not applied until 1857 when it was coined by a poet named George Thornbury; however, this term did not gain recognition until the end of the century, (Chapman 80). Instead, during the Victorian era these poems were called “‘dramatic lyrics’, ‘dramatic romances’, ‘lyrical monologues’ or ‘monodramas’” (Chapman 80), particularly observable in the title of Robert Browning's collection Dramatic Lyrics, which was released in 1842. The dramatic monologue is popularly believed to have “developed its recognizable features during the early Victorian period of the 1830s” (Chapman 81), throughout the writings of nineteenth century poets such as Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The emergence of the poetic conventions associated with this genre are historically regarded by scholars to emerge in Alfred Tennyson’s poem, “St Simeon Stylites”(which written in 1833, but not published until 1842), and then with Robert Browning’s poems, “Johannes Agricola in Meditation” and “Porphyria’s Lover,”(both published in 1836) (Byron 80-81).Other Beliefs:
There is no one poem that serves as an epitome, or proves conclusively when the dramatic monologue was developed-- some scholars that argue that this genre has ancient origins, citing old English poems as well as folk ballads. Further, “a number of critics have…suggested that it might be such women poets as Letitia Landon and Felicia Hemans, writing during that transitional period of the 1820s, who 'invented' the dramatic monologue” (Byron 81). The popular belief remains that the dramatic monologue was created “simultaneously but independently by Tennyson and Browning during the 1830s” (Byron 79).Dramatic Monologue as a Hybrid:
The dramatic monologue came into popularity during a wave of innovative poetry. This “refashioning of old hybrids [was a method] that Romantic poets had already begun, in the lyrical ballads of Wordsworth and Coleridge, or the lyrical drama of Byron and Shelley” (Chapman 81). This genre borrows many aspects from the lyric (to see more about this topic click here) and is known as a “lyrical-dramatic narrative hybrid” (Chapman 80), further sharing similarities with other precedent genres like expressing complex emotions (lyric), having a speaker that is not the poet (drama) and having a retrospective structure (narrative) (Chapman 80-81).Form:
The dramatic monologue is known as a “dynamic, unfixed genre” (Chapman 85). Unlike other genres, the dramatic monologue has no “set structural – metrical, rhyme, stanzaic – requirements” (Chapman 82). But a few other prerequisites are needed to give a poem the title of dramatic monologue-- i.e., the dramatic monologue must:1) Be written in the voice of an individual character (Landow 1).
2) Have an audience (or listener) as well as “some interplay between speaker and listener” (Langbaum 76). The listener can be present or not, they can even be imagined, but the speaker talks to them despite this.
3) Have elements of introspection/internalization/isolation (Chapman 81).
4) Produce a sense of immediacy (Chapman 81).
Speaker:
The dramatic monologue speaker is vital to the poem and is a complicated aspect. Though the speaker may take on other character’s voices to relay their story and propel the plot, the speaker is always in control of the words, allowing for a possible unreliable narrator/speaker, (as is found in soliloquies of the drama genre). The use of multiple voices spoken through the speaker is seen in Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s “The Blessed Damozel”as the speaker invokes the voice of the Damozel:‘I wish that he were come to me,
For he will come,’ she said.
‘Have I not pray'd in Heaven?--on earth,
Lord, Lord, has he not pray'd?
Are not two prayers a perfect strength?
And shall I feel afraid?’ (Rossetti 67-72)
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms states that “such poems reveal not the poet’s own thoughts but the mind of the impersonated character, whose personality is revealed unwittingly.”
The dramatic monologue is also condensed into a single vivid narrative scene where “to 'create or ‘restore’ the ‘inner’ world of another person,” (Nerstad 543). The reader must “‘embody’ the speaker--put themselves into his ‘body’--in their attempts to see into and through his point of view” (Nerstad 544). This is seen most explicitly in Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover”, as the speaker recounts his murder of a woman he loved:
That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
Perfectly pure and good: I found
A thing to do, and all her hair
In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around,
And strangled her. No pain felt she;
I am quite sure she felt no pain. (Browning 36-42)
The reader hears the inner monologue of the speaker and becomes privy to his innermost feelings and sociopathic aspects. The reader must be “imaginatively engaged, to assess the speaker’s qualities and arguments while simultaneously empathizing with the speaker’s predicament” (82).
Browning and Tennyson:
Browning is known as the father of the dramatic monologue (though he called it the dramatic lyric) due to popular and powerful poems. His most well-known poems, namely, “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover”, delve into the twisted psyche of men who have felt love’s passion too hard. Both poems act to connect the reader with the speaker and make the reader become co-conspirators in their actions.To read these poems in full:
“My Last Duchess”
“Porphyria’s Lover”
The dramatic monologue does not always have to inspire the horror or mystery of Browning’s poems; for instance, the dramatic monologue can be more subtle in its presentation like in that of Tennyson’s “Ulysses”. This poem is a great deal more understated than Browning’s work, but is still within the parameters to make this poem a dramatic monologue. But Robert Langbaum agrees that the “most successful dramatic monologues deal with speakers who are in some way reprehensible” (Langbaum 85).
Other Poets and the Dramatic Monologue:
The dramatic monologue is a genre that broke away from lyric poetry, merging aspects of drama and theatre as well as prose to create a captivating and interesting poetry experience. It was complicated in its origin and has a wide definition, but has been the frame on which many great poems stand.Major Victorian Era poems of this genre include Alfred Tennyson’s “Ulysses”; Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s poems “The Blessed Damozel” and “Jenny”; Augusta Webster’s poems “A Castaway” and “Circe”; and Felicia Hemans’ poems “Properzia Rossi” and “Arabella Stuart”.
Works Cited:
Baldick, Chris. The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. 2008. Oxford University Press, 2008. Web. 27 Feb. 2015
Byron, Glennis. “Rethinking the dramatic monologue: Victorian Women Poets and social critique.” Essays and Studies 2003. Ed. Alison Chapman. New York: The English Association, 2003. 79-98. Print.
Chapman, Alison, Antony H. Harrison, and Richard Cronin, eds. A Companion to Victorian Poetry. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2002. Print.
Landow, Richard P. “Dramatic Monologue: An Introduction.” The Victorian Web. Victorianweb.org, 10 March 2003. Web. 30 Jan. 2015
Langbaum, Robert Woodrow. The Poetry of Experience; the Dramatic Monologue in Modern Literary Tradition. New York: Random House, 1957. Print.
Nerstad, Erin. "Decomposing but to recompose: Browning, biblical hermeneutics, and the dramatic monologue." Victorian Poetry 50.4 (2012): 543-561. Web. 27 Feb.2015.
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. “Blessed Damozel.” Representative Poetry Online. Rpo.library.utoronto.ca. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. <http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/blessed-damozel>
Tennyson, Alfred. “Porphyria’s Lover.” Representative Poetry Online. Rpo.library.utoronto.ca, 2005. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. <http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/porphyrias-lover>